Pas de Deux A novel by Bronwen Welsh A Sequel to 'Antonette's Story' Copyright 2021

Chapter 7   Summer School

That summer the Company held its usual Summer School, and this time Jack and I were among the senior dancers asked to participate in assessing all the young dancers who came along, hoping to join the Company. The week before, Miss Higgins called us all into her office for a briefing. I confess that when I first arrived at the Summer School myself, not so many years ago, Miss Higgins terrified me and it seems I was not alone in my feelings. The worst moment came when I had to confess to her that I was not exactly like all the other young women in the ballet, and I thought she might instantly dismiss me. Thankfully she didn't, and as I progressed up the ladder of seniority at the Company, her manner seemed to soften, and now we were on quite cordial terms. The ballet was her life; she had never married and I always felt she would never leave until the day she was carried out of her office in a wooden box, she was so dedicated to her job..

“Welcome everyone,” she said as we all crowded into her office. “Well it's that time of year again when we must dash the hopes of over a hundred young would-be professional dancers. Hopefully we will find amongst them half a dozen or so who will make the grade. I will be at every session of course, but I can't be everywhere, so I will be relying on all of you to point out potential candidates for me to further assess.”

The first day of the Summer School arrived. It seemed hardly any time since Jack and I had been among those 'hopefuls' ourselves. Dressed in our usual rehearsal outfits of black leotards, we went into the large rehearsal room filled with the nervous chatter of all the young dancers. I had been chosen to introduce Miss Higgins, so I stood up on a slightly raised plinth at the end of the room and clapped my hands for attention. There was instant silence.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” I began. “My name is Antonette du Pré and I am one of the senior dancers who will be working with you at this summer school. Every ballet company has a ballet mistress or ballet master whose responsibility it is to take the daily ballet class which we all attend, to check the competence of the dancers, and to rehearse new and old works. We are fortunate to have Miss Clarissa Higgins as our Ballet Mistress, and I would like to introduce her to you now. Miss Higgins.”

With that and a smattering of applause, Miss Higgins stood up onto the plinth and with a graceful bow to her I stood aside as she actually smiled at me.

“Thank you Antonette, and good morning everyone,” she began, and there was a murmured 'Good morning, Miss Higgins' from the assembled dancers. It sounded like school assembly and in a way it was.

“Every year we hold this school, looking for people who will form the next generation of dancers in the Imperial Ballet Company. Most of the senior dancers who will be working with you were standing where you are not so many years ago. You are here because the principals of the ballet schools you attend have selected you as the best of their pupils. I therefore expect a certain level of competence from all of you, but much more is required than that. To be a successful professional dancer, you must have talent, stamina and total dedication. What the audience sees looks effortless, but there is a great deal of effort which must be expended in order to achieve that look. Our senior dancers who are all either principal dancers or soloists will explain that to you.as you rehearse with them. Are there any questions?”

There was silence, so Miss Higgins concluded with: “Very well, I hope even if you are unsuccessful in gaining a place with the company, you learn from your experiences with us.”

With that she stepped down from the plinth and I took over again, announcing that half of the young ladies should go into each of the two main rehearsal rooms, those with surnames beginning with A to L in one and M to Z in the other; and the young men, of whom there were about a dozen, should go to the small rehearsal room where Jack and some of the other male principals would rehearse them. So began a grueling few days, and deliberately so. These young people were being introduced to what life as a professional ballet dancer would be like and if they didn't like it, now was the time to find out.

It was fairly easy to sort out the wheat from the chaff, but I was glad that the final decision on offering places at the school would be made by Miss Higgins. One thing I didn't expect was the lengths to which some young people were prepared to go to try and get a place at the Company. One young woman told me that if she won a place, her father who was a rich City banker would be very happy to pay me generously to give his daughter private tuition. Another told me that ballet was her life and that if she didn't get a place she would probably kill herself. I quickly reported both these events to Miss Higgins, who thanked me and said they would definitely be eliminated from the short list. The sad thing was that Mollie, the girl who tried to bribe me would probably have been seriously considered for the Ballet if she had let her talent do the talking. The other girl, Tina would not be considered because it seemed unlikely that she was mentally stable enough.

Travelling home with Jack that evening I told him what had happened and he laughed.

“Well I've been propositioned by one of the young men,” he said. “He approached me in a corridor and said that he was prepared to do anything to get into the ballet, and he really emphasised the 'anything'. I showed him my wedding ring and said 'Sorry, I bat for the other team'.”

Did you report the incident to Miss Higgns?” I asked.

“I didn't think it was worthwhile, I just laughed it off.”

“When he got nowhere with you, he would have approached some of the other men,” I said. “Promise me you'll let Miss Higgins know first thing in the morning.”

I could see he looked a bit dubious, but he promised that he would. Next evening I asked him what her response was.

“First she asked me when it had happened and when I said early afternoon the previous day, she asked why I hadn't told her that day. I told her that I didn't think it was worth mentioning, but that you had insisted that I report it. She gave me one of her grim smiles and said 'A wise man always listens to his wife. She's a smart woman, remember that.'.”

I had to laugh; a compliment from Miss Higgins? That made it a 'red letter' day!. It was a pity about the young man in question since he was a talented dancer and if he hadn't tried to sell himself to get an advantage, he might well had gained a place in the Company. As it was, he was considered a liability and not worth having.

At the conclusion of the Summer School, four of the young women and two of the young men were offered places at the Company. Miss Higgins gave a final day speech in which she explained that there are only limited places each year, but not to give up, and if they finally decided against a professional ballet career, there were always amateur companies of a good standard who would be pleased to offer them a place.

I had heard nothing of Mariette until one day I was summoned to Miss Higgins' office which nowadays I did with a great deal less trepidation than formerly. She informed me that Mariette had given birth to twin girls and as a result had decided to retire from full-time dancing.

“This means we have a vacancy for another female Principal Dancer,” she said. “The Board have decided to elevate you from Acting Principal to Principal, effective immediately, so congratulations.”

I confess I was stunned. I only had ambitions to become a Soloist, and to be Principal was beyond my wildest dreams. Jack didn't seem terribly surprised when I told him.

“If you have a fault, my darling, it's that you don't have enough confidence in yourself and your abilities. Still, I suppose that's better than having a big head!”

“But if I'm a Principal, you should be one too, since you are a better dancer than me!”

“Well, I don't know about that,” he replied. “Anyway there's a limited number of Principals so I'll have to wait until somebody leaves before I'm considered.”

“Well, it will be a crying shame if you don't get it,” I said.

Jack and I kept in regular touch with Kate and Ben. I should mention that Kate had repaid the whole sum of the money we had loaned her to get the flight to Britain after she broke up with Bruce. Kate told me that she was going to get a divorce from Bruce as soon as possible, but she had to wait twelve months before applying.

“Do you have to go back to Australia to get it?” I asked.

“No, I've spoken to a solicitor and it can be done from here. It will take a further four months or so once things get started. Ben has asked me to marry him as soon as we can, and I said 'yes'.” With that she flashed her left hand at me and I saw that she was now sporting a very nice diamond ring, much larger than the previous one given to her by Bruce.

“I thought it was only fair to send my other engagement ring back to Bruce,” she said. “To my surprise he did bundle all my belongings and clothes into a big suitcase and dropped it off at my parent's place. I didn't really think that would happen. I sent him a brief note to thank him. There's no reason to be on bad terms now.”

“Well, at least you don't have to face him in court,” I replied.

The next production was to be 'Cinderella' with music by Sergei Prokofiev Every classical ballet is based around a young female character, and in the case of our Company, this rôle was almost always performed by our Prima Ballerina, Dame Monique de Valois. As a Principal Dancer, I was hoping that I might get a part as one of Cinderella's sisters, who are usually not portrayed as quite as ugly as they are in the pantomime version. However in this I was to be disappointed. Once again I was summoned to Miss Higgins' office, and once again she gave me a surprise.

“Antonette, I have a proposal to put to you. As you know, Dame Monique is scheduled to play the part of Cinderella in our next production, however there is a slight problem which I want you to keep confidential at present. In our last production of 'Raymonda', Monique slightly sprained her ankle near the end of the season, although she managed to carry on until the end.”

This news did not surprise me. I had noticed a slight difference in her dancing, probably too slight to be visible to most people but I had modelled my dancing on that of Monique so I always studied her performances.

“You don't seem surprised,” said Miss Higgins, so, blushing, I confessed that I had noticed a slight change in her dancing although I didn't know the cause. I think she was quite impressed. “Well, after much discussion we have decided to proceed with her taking the lead rôle but with a modification. As you know, Cinderella is onstage for almost the whole time in the ballet, a total of two hours. Our physiotherapist and an orthopaedic surgeon have examined her ankle and the conclusion is that she can dance if she rests between performances; this is where you come in. How would you like to perform the rôle on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and the Saturday matinée, while Monique performs Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings?”

I didn't expect anything Miss Higgins said would really surprise me any more, but this proposal certainly did. There was a stunned silence from me for a few seconds before I found my voice.

“Well of course I would love to do it,” I replied. “But there are more senior dancers than me in the Company. Shouldn't they be considered first?”

“Well of course we have, but as you know, every dancer has a slightly different style, and for the sake of the other dancers, especially Antoine, who will be playing the Prince, we've decided that your style most closely resembles that of Monique, in fact she said so herself. I'm afraid we can't give you equal billing but we will probably say 'performed by Monique de Valois and Antonette du Pré, with your name is slightly smaller type on the advertisements and billboards.”

The thought crossed my mind that audiences might be somewhat smaller when I was performing, but I presumed that the Company management had considered this before offering me the part. I could hardly wait to tell Jack what I had been offered. He gave me a big hug and said “This is wonderful news.”

“I think this will be the highlight of my career,” I replied. “I never expected to play the lead rôle in a ballet, yet here I am!”

“And well deserved too,” said Jack.

To be continued.

Next time: Cinderella